Web Hosting & SEO Services Opportunity

Overview

During the Jan 30 weekly sync, Karly surfaced that PaperTube's owner (Parag) is actively seeking web hosting and SEO services. This is an upsell opportunity that emerged alongside the domain setup work already in progress for their Salesforce email campaigns.

The conversation is warm — Parag asked Karly directly whether Asymmetric could recommend anyone for web hosting, and Karly indicated it was "our bread and butter." Mark is joining the Feb 5 PaperTube call to handle the technical domain setup and will also use that time to advance this conversation.

Current State

PaperTube's primary website runs on Shopify
Parag has noted they previously tried WordPress without success
Their actual business goal is custom brand work (B2B), not e-commerce — Shopify is misaligned with that goal
They have no internal tech team; Parag handles technical decisions himself
No web maintenance, content publishing, or SEO work is currently being done

The Opportunity

Parag specifically mentioned interest in:
- Website hosting and management
- Blog/content publishing (organic search)
- SEO support — improving organic search results

Karly's read: a WordPress site is the right fit because their primary goal is brand credibility and inbound leads from custom work, not retail sales volume. Shopify doesn't support content/SEO goals well.

"That's more of what he was talking about — maintenance and putting blog posts out and helping with organic search results, that kind of stuff." — Karly

Key Considerations

Shopify vs. WordPress: Shopify is a hosted platform — there's no "hosting" to sell against it directly. The pitch is a separate WordPress site for brand/content purposes, potentially alongside or replacing the Shopify shop depending on how much e-commerce volume they actually do.
Parag's WordPress hesitation: He tried it before and had a bad experience. Mark needs to address this directly on the call — likely a past implementation issue, not a platform issue.
Pricing: Parag asked about pricing on the call. Karly deferred. Mark will handle this on Feb 5. Reference the Avant proposals as a starting point for scoping.

Next Steps

[ ] Mark — discuss WordPress site rationale and address Shopify/WordPress distinction on the Feb 5 PaperTube call
[ ] Mark — provide pricing guidance for web hosting + SEO/content retainer (reference Avant proposals for comps)
[ ] Karly — follow up after the call to formalize scope if Parag is receptive

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